Marina Seca Resumes Trucking Boats to the US

Created by sue. Last modified on 2008-12-05 13:27:01
Topic: Global Yachting Services
Countries: Mexico, USA

As reported in Cruising Compass today.

Boat Hauling Option Restored in the Sea of Cortez

Pat Rains, Author of many cruising guides reports in The Log If you’re one of the hundreds of yacht owners whose itineraries got shattered when Marina Seca quit hauling boats out of the Sea of Cortez, your worries are over. Here’s why.

During the summer, Heidi Grossman of Marina San Carlos in Sonora, reported that her family’s Marina Seca boat transport service had quit hauling boats across the U.S.-Mexico border. After 15 years of trucking boats between San Carlos and any port in the U.S., new U.S. Customs regulations reportedly made it impossible to continue.

Grossman said Marina Seca was keeping the custom hydraulic trailer, but was looking for a trucking partner in order to continue.

Dozens of boats were on the waiting list, but no dates could be assigned.

That also left the arriving 2008 fleet with a big gap in the itinerary of perhaps a hundred more yachties who had planned to truck their boats home from San Carlos to the U.S. Instead, they would have no option but the “Baja bash” (cruising north up the outside of the Baja California peninsula to reach U.S. waters.) From San Carlos, that’s an unexpected 1,000-mile addition to the cruise itinerary, and about 750 miles of the cruise are usually uncomfortably “to weather.”

Last week, Heidi Grossman’s sister, Kirsten Grossman de Zaragoza, announced good news: The boat transport service is back in business.

“We have transported five boats to and from Tucson in the last month with no problems,” she said. “All we did was contract a trucking company to deal with crossing the border. Marina Seca will take care of all the arrangements, including hauling, scheduling, paperwork, dismasting and Customs. Our crew will follow the boat all the way to Tucson.”

For more information about having your boat trucked back from the Sea of Cortez, or having it hauled south from the U.S., call Kirsten Grossman de Zaragoza at Marina Seca, San Carlos, Mexico on +52 622-6-1061, ext 105.